Umphrey’s McGee Gets Mooged-Out For a Cause

March 27, 2009

Umphrey's McGee Mooged-Out Sound Check

On February 21, 2009, rock improv maestrosUmphrey’s McGee got Mooged-Out at MoDaddy’s in Asheville — raising almost $4,000 for the Bob Moog Foundation in the process. Performing a benefit pre-show for the Foundation, Umphrey’s rocked to a sold out crowd with all band members hooked up to Moog instruments: Brandon, Chris, Andy and Ryan all had their instruments hooked up to Moogerfooger effect pedals. Jake “Mooged-Out” on the Moog Guitar and the Little Phatty and Joel worked his keyboard magic on the Voyager and a Rhodes running through moogerfoogers.

During their jam, the crowd was treated to Jake and Brandon trading solos on the Little Phatty, and sometimes performing a duet on the synth together. Another golden moment was Brandon reaching back to tweak Ryan’s moogerfoogers during his killer bass solo. Joel rocked the Voyager, as always. The guys obviously had a great time jamming and enjoying all of the Moog gear that graced the stage. You can hear audio samples from the evening here.

Dave Hamilton Tweaking the Knobs - Photo by Jon Leidel

At the front of house, our Creative Director, Dave Hamilton, Mooged-Out the band through his slew of moogerfoogers. Dave is an expert at bending the sounds and adding a new dimension to the music.

In addition to mastering the Moogerfoogers, Dave had also set the room up with quadraphonic surround sound to get the most out of this unusual musical experience.

Many, many thanks to the whole Umphrey’s crew for their support in making the evening an enormous success!! Thanks also to MoDaddy’s for hosting the event and to all of our amazing volunteers who make events like this come off without a hitch. Let’s do it again sometime soon!

All proceeds from the evening will assist the Bob Moog Foundation in the planning and creation of the Moogseum.

Event Poster By Jenny Greer

Many thanks to Jenny Greer at Sound Mind Media for creating our poster for the event (left). These commemorative posters were given to each of the attendees and Umphrey’s McGee was generous enough to sign them. Everybody went home happy! Jenny has done quite a bit of work for the Bob Moog Foundation, including the creation of our logo. You can see more of her work on the Sound Mind Media website.